Randy Clark - Christianitys Great Healing River and Its Contributing Streams: A Short Story from Amazed by the Power of God

RANDY CLARK

R andy Clark was used of God to birth the Toronto Blessing in 1994. This opened the door for him to become an international speaker, who has spoken in 36 nations. From 1994-2004 Randy focused on leading renewal meetings throughout the United States and around the world where he equipped pastors and leaders of apostolic networks and denominations. He equipped them by teaching them how to pray for the sick and deliverance, receive words of knowledge, and giving them a biblical basis for healing.

However, the most important aspect of his ministry was when Randy would teach about impartation (the ability for the gifts or anointing to be transferred from one person to another person determined by the will of God) and then pray for impartation for the pastors and leaders. Since 2004 Randy has focused primarily on conducting Schools of Healing and Impartation, offering three different schools each with its own focus. Randy speaks at conferences primarily focusing on renewal, healing, and impartation.

His vision to have a training school finally came to pass when the Global School of Supernatural Ministry was founded. This school helps prepare people for work as missionaries, church planters, pastors, or in the market place with a stronger anointing for prophetic and healing ministry. This school is patterned after the School of Supernatural Ministry under Bill Johnsons oversight in Redding, California.

In 2005, Randy started the Apostolic Network of Global Awakening, a network of churches and itinerant ministries. He is the founder of Global Awakening, through which he conducts his international and national ministry.

In 2008, the School of Worship was founded to help prepare worship leaders and musicians for church planting, worship leading in churches, and itinerant worship or ministry of music opportunities.

Randy Clark shares with you the amazing power of God:

T he Bible uses the analogy of a river that has healing properties associated with it and the leaves of the trees that grow on its banks in Ezekiel 47:12 and Revelation 22:2. This river analogy has been used for moves of God, and as a metaphor for the healing movement of God. I believe there is a great River of Healing that has been released on the earth through Gods Church. However, there is a great deal of prejudice within the Church regarding this river. And, to be honest, the flow of this river has caused a lot of controversy and division within the Church.

It is my desire to show how the various streams that make up this mighty river flow into the River of Healing. One of the problems we have faced is mistaking the smaller river or creek that we are in and feel comfortable with, for the river itself, and often seeing other smaller rivers or creeks as foul or polluted tributaries that dont really flow into the same River of Healing as our does.

What do I believe these valid contributing smaller rivers are which flow into the great River of Healing within Christianity? They are:

• healing through sacraments (Roman Catholic and Orthodox and others);
• healing in answer to prayers for the sick by the church or the elders (historical reformation denominations);
• healing through faith in Gods promises and confessing and appropriating the promises by faith, also praying the prayer of faith for others (Faith Cure Movement and the Word of Faith Movement);
• healing through the prayers of persons with the gifts of healing and ones own faith to receive (Pentecostalism);
• healing through the healing evangelists (Latter Rain Movement and 1948 Healing Revival);
• healing through Christians who move in the gifts of healing and/or words of knowledge (Third Wave Evangelical and Vineyard).

I believe that each of these streams is a valid stream that flows into Gods great River of Healing. Are they all pure without any pollution from humankind? No, there is some of mans pollution in every one of them, but we must discern what is pollution from man, and what is the water of healing from God. We need to work to remove the pollution, clean up the rivers, and not refuse to receive the blessing they are intended to carry.

I am hoping to present the best of each river, or to legitimize each contributing river so that we can honor our other brothers and sisters in the Church Jesus died to establish, creating more unity within His Body. I believe that this greater unity will also bring about a greater flow of the River of Healing. Unity opens the windows of Heaven to the blessing of Gods rain to fall and flow into all the rivers of healing. I hope to accomplish this task not so much through definitions and analysis, but through story, my story. You see, I have experienced or been part of almost all of these smaller rivers of healing that flow into His River of Healing. It is a humbling thing to realize that your river doesnt exhaust His River.

My story begins in the Baptist denominations (General Baptist, Southern Baptist, and American Baptist). I always believed in healing; I cant remember a time I didnt believe in it. My maternal grandmother told me about hearing Gods voice audibly telling her to go into the bedroom to pray and He would heal her. She did so and she said it felt like a hot hand went down her throat causing the large goiter to instantly disappear.

We watched Oral Roberts healing crusades in the big tent on television, and I can remember times when the whole church would pray for someones healing. However, I didnt understand that the churches I attended really embraced a form of what today would be called soft cessationism. The pastors, churches, and congregations believed God could heal today. The Holy Spirit could in His sovereignty move in answer to prayer and heal the persons we prayed for as a congregation. There were no healing services, and if you had introduced them into the order of the service on any regularity you probably would have had problems with the Baptist Association or the Presbytery of the General Baptist.

The soft Cessationist belief held that the gifts of healing no longer existed in the Church, the office of healer no longer existed and tongues, prophecy, words of knowledge, working of miracles, had all ended. The interesting thing is that within the small General Baptist church that I was raised in several people moved in prophecy and/or words of knowledge, but didnt realize that they operated in these gifts. While denying the charismatic or Pentecostal terms for the gifts, they were actually functioning in them. They would communicate these impressions, these knowings, as God told me, the Lord was showing me, I believe the Lord was leading me type of language.

I discovered that we often expressed a reality in our hymnology that we wouldnt feel comfortable with in our theology. For example, the gospel song, I Come to the Garden with the lyrics, I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And He talks with me and He walks with me, and He tells me I am His own. There was a belief in being led by God. The pastors of these churches I grew up in were not educated, they had no degrees from seminary, nor from college, actually most didnt have a high school education. I was 16 before the church had a pastor with a college education. Though the pastors were not educated they had been influenced by soft cessationism.

God could heal as the sovereign Lord. He might answer our prayers, If it was His will for this person. We believed in healing enough to pray for the sick, but there wasnt a strong faith for healing. With this theology for healing we had no place for healing in the normal order of service. The pastors didnt feel any need to learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit pertaining to healing.